topic backup snapshot in ESXi Discussions

backup snapshot

ricky73 — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 06:46:49 GMT

I need to save the whole Virtual Machine, snapshot included. I already read about Vmware knowledge base about snapshot.

Is there a way ? Can I poweroff machine and to save the whole datastore directory (vmx file + .vmdk) ?

Re: backup snapshot

a_p_ — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 07:22:55 GMT

Assuming that your datastore is a VMFS volume (i.e. not vSAN), you can copy the files. Make sue that you copy all files that make up the VM, and not only the vmdk, and vmx files.

Please keep in mind that thin provisioned virtual disks will inflate to their provisioned size when downloading them, because Thin Provisioning is a VMFS file system feature.

André

Re: backup snapshot

ricky73 — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 13:47:30 GMT

Does It exist free software can be permit to save VMFS5 files to other Windows repository or to tape?

Re: backup snapshot

a_p_ — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:08:32 GMT

Not sure what exactly you have in mind.

The "poor men's" solution is to enable SSH on the ESXi host, and use e.g. WinSCP to download the files.

André